The present disclosure relates generally to the field of position monitoring. Position monitoring is important to many applications, including but not limited to operation or control of aircraft or other vehicles.
Position monitoring and display of position can assist pilots and other users by providing decision support and other assistance. For example, a map showing current aircraft location can assist the pilot in making operational decisions while traveling on an airport surface. Global positioning systems (GPS) are available for determining locations of vehicles and are combined with displays to provide a moving map view for the vehicle. Accurate position sensing and correlation of the position to the map view assists the operator or pilot in making safe vehicle (e.g., aircraft) movements and reducing the likelihood of a potential collision. Positioning systems, such as, GPS systems, and databases for the map view can be inaccurate at times. In aircraft applications, digital moving map (DMM) positioning can be unreliable due to positioning signal interference caused by GPS signal reflection/multipath from large taxiing aircraft or other structures at the airport. DMM positioning can also be unreliable due to poisoning signal interference caused by jamming in uncontrolled environments.
There is a need for a position monitoring system and method that cross checks position measurements from one or more systems to increase confidence in the position determination. There is also a need for a system and method that compares position as sensed by a positioning system to a database of the environment, (e.g., electronic charts) to ensure accurate correlation of the position and the chart. There is also a need to provide feedback to a pilot that the position and map view functions are accurate. There is further a need for system and method for use with airport layouts and taxiways operations that displays an environment view correlated with confirmed position. There is further a need for system and method for use with airport layouts and taxiways operations that senses the environment in real time and correlates a sensed position with a view of the environment. There is also a need for fusing data from an enhanced vision system with a map to cross-check a position estimate. There is also a need for a low cost, efficient, light weight system and method for determining and confirming position.